Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Split

***DISCLAIMER***
The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I
encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion
(or other commenters),
that's fine. To each their own. These reviews
are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just
sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is
not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the
reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being
unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay.
4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews
feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on
Twitter (@RevRonster) for links to my reviews and the occasional
live-Tweet session of the movie. Ooooh! It's called Split because it has to do with his split personalities and not a banana split.

Split – 4 out of 5

After movies like The Village, The Happening, Lady in the
Water, The Last Airbender, Devil, and After Earth (and kinda The Visit), I
fully expected that I would never see another decent-to-great movie from
writer/director M. Night Shyamalan.I
absolutely loved The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and, despite the stupid
weakness of the antagonists, I thought Signs was pretty creepy (Hmmm, maybe
someday I’ll write a Rev. Ron’s Reality that tells the story of the one crazy
alien who tells all the other aliens that they shouldn’t land on Earth because
of how it’s literally covered in the one thing that can harm them but they
don’t listen to him and go anyway).With every movie seemingly getting worse and worse, I pretty much gave up on the
guy…and then I hear these good things about Split.On a whim, I decided to blind buy myself a
copy—and that’s always a gamble.So, did
this pay off?Is Shyamalan back in his
old form?Um, kinda.

She sees mentally broken people.

Three girls; Marcia (Jessica Sula), Claire (Haley Lu Richardson)
and the outcast Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), get kidnapped by a man and find
themselves held hostage in a mysterious location.The man (James McAvoy) keeps appearing to
them in different forms claiming to be different people and it is soon
understood that the man suffers from multiple personalities.As the girls clamor to find a way to escape,
the man’s doctor (Betty Buckley) strives to uncover the mystery of his mental
illness.However, everyone soon learns
what a threat the man truly is as he starts to proclaim that something far more
dangerous is coming.Something he calls
“The Beast.”

Multiple personalities gives people the ability to climb walls--oh, no wait,that comes from being bitten by a radioactive spider.

For the most part, Split is a fairly decent movie.The story that is presented of the kidnapping
is pretty straight forward and doesn’t really offer up too much different than
what you would see in other films involving the same subject material
(excluding, of course, the multiple personalities angle).Even the development of the victims and how
the history of one of them ultimately plays a role in the current conflict is
fairly average.I’m not saying these
elements are bad, I’m just saying that there’s nothing overtly wrong with
them.They are serviceable and perform
their function far better than some of the worst films Shymalan has done.Essentially, the writer/director isn’t trying
to overcomplicate the matters and isn’t trying to force an “Ah-Ha!” twist
moment.In all honesty, this film should
have got my average score of 3 out of 5 but one thing made this film incredibly
memorable and stopped it from just being something to watch once and
forget:James McAvoy’s performance.

This was my favorite persona...because of the sass.

I don’t want to sell the rest of the cast short because they
are all doing a great job in their respective roles but McAvoy steals the damn
show.This role could have easily been a
disaster because if you play it too cartoonish then it will lose all legitimacy
and ultimately have lessen the impact and the threat that this character has.However, McAvoy absolutely commands the
character and seamlessly crafts each individual and unique personality with
their own body language and delivery style.Seeing each personality on their own is impressive enough but when the
moments come where you see him shift from one personality to the next is
awe-inspiring.I always felt McAvoy was
an excellent actor but this role proved that he was even greater than I
originally believed and showcased a man with seemingly limitless talent.

Limitless talent...at being a nerd! Look at those glasses. Wait, I wear glasses.Oh crap, I'm a nerd!

With every M. Night Shyamalan film, you gotta talk about the
inevitable twist at the end.Ever since
The Sixth Sense went on to become a pop cultural infamy, the filmmaker has become
synonymous with twist endings.This
element has been both a blessing and a curse as, when they are done right, he’s
herald as a creative genius but, when they are done poorly, he’s mocked and
ridiculed.Hell, even when he doesn’t do
them (or they even feel warranted, for that matter), there’s a sense that you didn’t get your money’s
worth.In Split, there is a twist at the
end and while it’s not a huge twist, it’s definitely a satisfying one—although,
there is a very forced element to it that feels a tad silly.After the announcement of his next film, you
might already know what the twist is but, for the sake of Spoilers, I won’t
give it away.All I will say is that it
may not be the revelation at the end of The Sixth Sense but there is something
undeniably satisfying about how this film culminates and the promises it offers
up for the future.

Did Shyamalan somehow get younger since the days of The Sixth Sense?

Overall, the film Split is one of M. Night Shyamalan’s best
in recent years but it does feel a tad generic at times.Additionally, the film does suffer from a
lack of tension for long periods of the film—which is odd because the movie is
literally about a kidnapping and that stuff is terrifying.However, this lack of atmosphere does get
better as the film progresses.Hell, the
entire film actually gets better as the story unfolds and we learn more about
the mentally ill man.Like I previously
stated, the biggest selling point this film offered was its ending and the
absolutely astounding performance of McAvoy.While the movie does border on vilifying the mentally ill, McAvoy
performance and the writing of the story stops it from feeling like having the
antagonist have a mental disorder is out of laziness and more out of a way to
create a unique threat.The final
product results in a film that starts kinda mediocre but builds terrifically
and contains a truly wondrous and masterful performance.

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About Me

I'm a geek, an atheist (who is also an ordained reverend), a peanut butter and jelly enthusiast, a man who shares the same name with a popular character from "Parks & Rec" and feels he can't live up to the awesomeness of the fictional character, was proudly banned from Reddit, an occasional Shakespearean performer, and a stand up comic.
Have any questions, recommendations or wanna share any theories on various movies? Email me at RevRonMovies@gmail.com and I'll talk about them on my new Q&A segment!